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You will recall that Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping enjoyed a muchanticipated ''Truce'' Dinner at the G20 in Buenos Aires and quaffed aCatena Zapata Nicolas Malbec [2014] wine with their sirloin steaks andfinished it all off with caramel rolled pancakes, crispy chocolate andfresh cream, a dinner that ran over by 60 minutes and one where thedinner Guests broke out into spontaneous applause thereafter.

At the very moment that the G2 Presidents were stuffing their gills,it has transpired that some 7,000 miles away, Canadian Authoritieswere making the arrest of Wanzhou Meng, chief financial officer ofHuawei Technologies Co. at the request of US Authorities. The U.S. isseeking the extradition of Wanzhou Meng after convincing Canada toarrest her on Dec. 1. Canada confirmed she was in custody shortlyafter the Globe and Mail reported she had been arrested in connectionwith violating sanctions against Iran. Meng is the daughter of thefounder of Huawei, a national champion and deeply embedded in XiJinping's China Inc. Bloomberg said ''While the U.S. routinely asksallies to extradite drug lords, arms dealers and other criminals,arresting a major Chinese executive like this is rare -- if notunprecedented''

“This is sending a signal that there is a new game” said DennisWilder, a former CIA China analyst and senior director for Asia at theNational Security Council under President George W. Bush.

It has also transpired that Ambassador John Bolton was aware of thearrest at the time. In the hiphop World, this would be called a[geopolitical] ''Diss''

A diss track or diss song (diss – abbr. from disrespect) is a songintended to verbally attack someone else, often as a response tosomeone's diss track. While musical parodies and attacks have alwaysexisted, the trend became increasingly common in the hip hop genrefueled by the hip hop rivalry phenomenon. [Wikipedia]

"Huawei used an unofficial subsidiary named Skycom to transactbusiness in Iran for Iranian telecommunication companies," Crownattorney John Gibb-Carsley alleged in a Vancouver courtroom. WanzhouMeng is being charged with conspiracy to defraud banks. Of course,Many will rail against the fact that the US' sanction warfare strategybut this is the way it is. Meng was said to have been a director ofSkycom at one point, Reuters reported in 2013. Skycom tried to sellS$2.03 million worth of Hewlett-Packard Co computer gear in late 2010,according to Reuters. Former employees of Skycom have stated that itwas not distinct from Huawei, and that Skycom employees had Huaweie-mail addresses and badges, according to the Canadian court filing.Documents obtained through an investigation by the US authorities showthat multiple Skycom bank accounts were controlled by Huaweiemployees, the filing said.

Canada will face "grave consequences" [Xinhua: (Ch.) 严重后果] if it doesnot immediately release Meng Wanzhou. The Vancouver Real Estate marketwhich has boomed for decades on the back of Chinese demand lookshorribly exposed. The temptation to ''mug'' the handsome JustinTrudeau is something the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia could not resistand it seems Xi is experiencing the same impulse.

It is worth noting that Huawei is very much in the crosshairs. NewZealand followed the US and Australia in banning Huawei networkingequipment from 5G communication networks, citing "national securityconcerns". As part of an "extraordinary outreach campaign", USsecurity officials have reportedly reached out to European and Asiancountries where Huawei equipment is already in use - including the UK,where Huawei hardware forms a key part of BT's 21st Century Network -warning them about the "national security risks" posed by the company.The US is mulling a subsidy for the purchase and maintenance ofnon-Chinese equipment by its allies, the WSJ reported noting that oneof the government's main concerns surrounds the use of Chinese telecomequipment in countries that host US military bases, such as Italy,Japan and Germany. Germany has already been considering a ban on 5Gequipment from Huawei. In Asia, a ban is also under consideration inJapan.

An important market for Huawei has been Africa. In fact, Huawei is thebloodstream of Africa's telecom infrastructure and ubiquitous. Howthis plays out in Africa is now an ''above the radar'' issue.

A lot of Folks have been remarkably casual in their assessment ofwhere this is all going. The US Administration is split with Appeasers[Wall Streeters] on one side and Hawks [Lighthizer and Navarro] on theother. Hawks are circling, I am afraid.

Explanation: Is it possible to capture the entire plane of our galaxyin a single image? Yes, but not in one exposure -- and it took someplanning to do it in two. The top part of the featured image is thenight sky above Lebanon, north of the equator, taken in 2017 June. Theimage was taken at a time when the central band of the Milky WayGalaxy passed directly overhead. The bottom half was similarlycaptured six months later in latitude-opposite Chile, south of Earth'sequator. Each image therefore captured the night sky in exactly theopposite direction of the other, when fully half the Galactic planewas visible. The southern half was then inverted -- car and all -- anddigitally appended to the top half to show the entire central band ofour Galaxy, as a circle, in a single image. Many stars and nebulas arevisible, with the Large Magellanic Cloud being particularly notableinside the lower half of the complete galactic circle.

Ernest Hemingway called them “The Green Hills of Africa” in 1935 — butthese days they’re not so green.

In 2009, a severe drought killed as much as 90 percent of livestock inKenya’s Chyulu Hills. Chronic drought, deforestation and overgrazingare taking an increasing toll on the hills, whose springs are a majorwater source for the more than 1 million people living in thedownstream city of Mombasa.

Overlooking the iconic Mount Kilimanjaro across the border inTanzania, the Chyulu Hills emerge between Kenya’s world-famous Tsavoand Amboseli national parks. Savanna grassland and acacia woodlandsdominate the low-lying areas as far as the eye can see, contrastingstarkly with the lush green cloud forest atop the hills.

From the hills’ highest point (2,188 meters, or 7,180 feet), thesurrounding area may appear devoid of people or wildlife — but lookscan be deceiving. The area holds a huge diversity of species, rangingfrom the critically endangered black rhino to large herds of zebra andwildebeest. Local Maasai herders have also been grazing their cattlehere for generations, co-existing alongside lions and other predators.

Carl Van Vechten described him as a “strange, curious, head-wagging,simian creature, scarce human’, who wriggled through the play, leavinga long streak of lust and terror in his wake’.The radio stations are predominantly Spanish: ranchera music,boleros, corridos, ballads of spurned love, and the distinctivenorteño sound—percussive, driving, no brass @nybookshttp://bit.ly/2ROZCnW

The intellectual father of the new Zeitgeist that propelled Brexit, LePen, the @Mov5Stelle in Italy, Gert Wilders in the Netherlands, isVladimir Putin. In the Middle East, it is Putin who is calling theshots in Aleppo, and in a quite delicious irony it looks like he haspocketed Opec as well.

Michael Cohen spoke with a Russian national who repeatedly proposed ameeting between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin inthe early months of Trump’s presidential bid and offered “politicalsynergy” for the campaign, according to a filing by Special CounselRobert Mueller’s office.

The unidentified Russian, claiming to be a “trusted person” in thecountry, told Cohen that a meeting between Trump and Putin could havea “phenomenal” impact politically and for Trump’s business aspirationsto build a Moscow tower, according to the filing. There is “no biggerwarranty in any project than consent of [the president of Russia],”the person told Cohen, according to Mueller’s filing.

That November 2015 exchange suggests that outreach between Trump’scampaign and Russia was broader and possibly earlier than previouslyknown. It was disclosed in a slim document that described Cohen’sconversations with Mueller’s office after he pleaded guilty and agreedto provide information to prosecutors who are investigating Russianinterference in the 2016 election.

The filing accomplished two things. It provided information to thejudge in Manhattan who will sentence Cohen next week. But likeprevious court filings by Mueller, it also offered a window intoMueller’s probe, in this case displaying the breadth of his knowledgeabout interactions between Russians and people close to Trump.

“After cheating the IRS for years, lying to banks and to Congress, andseeking to criminally influence the presidential election, Cohen’sdecision to plead guilty –- rather than seek a pardon for his manifoldcrimes -– does not make him a hero,” the prosecutors in Manhattan saidin a filing.

Cohen has pleaded guilty in two cases -- one brought by Mueller andone brought by Manhattan federal prosecutors -- and admitted ninecrimes, including tax evasion, lying to lawmakers and arrangingpayments to silence women claiming to have had affairs with Trump, toinfluence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

The Manhattan prosecutors said Friday that Trump directed Cohen tomake the payments to the women, adopting statements by Cohen in hisAugust guilty plea. “Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect toboth payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction ofIndividual-1,” prosecutors wrote, using "Individual-1" as a referenceto Trump.

Mueller is coming. And he is clearly coming for Trump. Not simply forobstructing justice but for conspiring with a hostile foreign power towin an election. This is a scandal unlike any America has ever seen.

He is right, traditional media has been disrupted and the insurgentscan broadcast live and over the top. From feeding the hot-houseconspiracy frenzy on line (‘’a constant state of destabilisedperception’’), timely and judicious doses of Wikileaks leaks whichdrained Hillary’s bona fides and her turn-out and motivated Trump’s,what we have witnessed is something remarkable and noteworthy.

The emergence of cryptocurrencies in the last few years has been aroller coaster ride. During 2017, Bitcoin rose in value from $900 toalmost $20,000 before collapsing dramatically. Today, at the beginningof December 2018, a single bitcoin is worth just under $4,000.All this has encouraged the rapid development of othercryptocurrencies—well over 1,000 of them by most estimates. The dreamis that these could reproduce Bitcoin’s success. But the reality isthat few are traded in large volume or are worth anything at all.The spectacular rise and fall of cryptocurrencies, along with thesupposed anonymity they offer, has unsurprisingly attracted criminals.The story of cryptocurrencies is littered with thefts, Ponzi schemes,and other unlawful activities.But in recent months, one type of fraud has come to the fore:pump-and-dump schemes. In February, the US Commodity Futures TradingCommission issued a specific warning to consumers about these scams,and regulators have begun to actively pursue the ringleaders.Yet little is known about these schemes, how they are run, and howthey work in detail.Today that changes thanks to the work of Jiahua Xu and BenjaminLivshits at Imperial College London. These guys have studiedpump-and-dump schemes in cryptocurrency markets and now publish thefirst detailed account of how they work. The researchers evendeveloped an algorithm that can predict when they are about to occur,which offers a promising way to subvert or prevent them.First some background. Pump-and-dump schemes are a well-known ruse inconventional commodity trading markets but have only recently becomecommon in cryptocurrencies. The organizer begins by selecting anobscure cryptocurrency and quietly accumulating it.The organizer then announces that a pump operation is about to beginand that a randomly chosen cryptocurrency will be announced at aspecific time. These announcements take place over anonymous channels,such as Telegram, that interested parties can subscribe to.At the specified time, the organizer reveals the chosencryptocurrency, which happens to be the one they have accumulated.This is the cue for interested parties to begin buying. The suddenactivity then triggers a sharp increase in the price of the currency.When the price reaches its peak, a sell-off begins as participantsattempt to make a quick profit at the expense of anybody unluckyenough to have joined the fun unwittingly or too slowly. All thisactivity takes place in just a few minutes.Of course, the organizer is in a clear position to make the greatestprofit. But a significant number of others take part in the hope ofcashing out early enough to make a profit. Indeed, part of the ruse isthat the “pump” is entirely automated and random, so that nobody cantake advantage of insider information and that only quick reactionsand judgment determine who wins.Enough people have been fooled by this ruse to make pump-and-dumpschemes increasingly common. Xu and Livshits say that on average thereare two pump-and-dump scams every day and that these generate about $7million worth of trading volume a month. So somebody is making asignificant amount.To study the details, the researchers focused on a singlepump-and-dump scam that took place on November 14, 2018, at exactly19:30 GMT. They gleaned the details by recording announcements overseveral Telegram channels, the largest being Official McAfee PumpSignals, which has over 12,000 members. They then recorded the pricechanges and trading volumes of the selected currencyAt 19:30:04, Official McAfee Pump Signals revealed the chosen coin, alittle-known cryptocurrency called BVB, which had been created in 2016by supporters of the German soccer team Borussia Dortmund. However,the coin had been dormant for over a year, with little tradingactivity and a value of about 35 sat (1 sat = 10-8 bitcoin).Then things started happening quickly. “We notice that the first buyorder was placed and completed within 1 second after the first coinannouncement,” say Xu and Livshits. “After a mere 18 seconds of amanic buying wave, the coin price already skyrocketed to its peak.”That was when it reached 115 sat.Not all the Telegram channels reacted so quickly. Anybody followingBomba bitcoin “cryptopia” was at a significant disadvantage, sincethis channel announced the pump at 19:30:23. “Note that Bomba bitcoin‘cryptopia’” only announced the coin at the time when the coin pricewas already at its peak, making it impossible for investors who solelyrelied on their announcement to make any money,” say Xu and Livshits.Then, as participants took their profits, the price plummeted. “Threeand half minutes after the start of the pump-and-dump, the coin pricehad dropped below its open price,” say the researchers. After that,the trading volume dropped significantly.Xu and Livshits’s analysis reveals some interesting details about theevent. First, anybody who joined the activity more than 18 secondsafter it started had little hope of making a profit.And second, participants bought about twice as much BVB coin as theysold. That suggests many participants are sitting on unsold coins.“Those coin holders can only expect to reverse the position in thenext pump, which might never come,” say the researchers.Xu and Livshits studied 236 other pump-and-dump events that took placebetween July 21 and November 18. They say that many of them werepreceded by unusual buying activity in the target currency. This wouldbe consistent with insiders’ accumulating the currency ahead of thepump. “The study reveals that pump-and-dump organizers can easily usetheir insider information to take extra gain at the sacrifice offellow pumpers,” say Xu and Livshits.But the study also suggests a way to spot target currencies beforethey are revealed: simply look for unexpected trades in obscure coins.To find out whether this works, Xu and Livshits used the historicaldata from known pump-and-dump schemes to train a machine-learningalgorithm to spot the telltale signs that a scam is about to occur.

Abstract —While pump-and-dump schemestracted the attention of cryptocurrency observers and regulatorsalike, this paper is the first detailed study of pump-and-dumpactivities in cryptocurrency mar- kets. We present a case study of arecent pump-and- dump event, investigate 220 pump-and-dump activitiesorganized in Telegram channels from July 21, 2018 to November 18,2018, and discover patterns in crypto- markets associated withpump-and-dump schemes. We then build a model that predicts the pumplikelihood of a given coin prior to a pump. The model exhibits highprecision as well as robustness, and can be used to cre- ate a simple,yet very effective trading strategy, which we empirically demonstratecan generate a return as high as 80% within a span of only threeweeks.

Due to their end-to-end encryption, programmability, and relativeanonymity, new social media tools such as Telegram1 and Discord havebecome cryptocurrency enthusiasts’ preferred communication vehicles.

This paper: In this paper, we trace the message history of over 300Telegram channels from July to November 2018, and identify 220 pumpevents orchestrated through those channels. We analyze features ofpumped coins and market movement of coins before, during, and afterpump-and- dump. We develop a predictive random forest model that givesthe likelihood of each possible coin being pumped prior to the actualpump event. With an AUC (area under curve) of the ROC (receiveroperating characteristic) curve of over 0.9, the model exhibits highaccuracy and is indicative of the “pumpability” of coins.

Analysis: Our analysis shows that pump-and-dump activities are a lotmore prevalent that previously believed. Specifically, around 100organized Telegram pump-and-dump channels coordinate on average 2pumps day which generates an aggregate artificial trading volume of 7million USD a month

• Prediction: We develop a predictor that, given a pre-pumpannouncement can predict the likelihood of each coin being pumped withan AUC (Area Under Curve) of over 0.9 both in-sample andout-of-sample. The models confirm that market movements contain hiddeninformation that can be utilized for monetary purposes.

• Trading strategy: Based on this, we formulate a simple tradingstrategy that, based on historical data, gives us a return of 80% overa period of three weeks, even under strict assumptions.

Set-up: Firstly, the organizer creates a group or channel which isusually accessible by all users, and recruits as many group members orchannel subscribers as possible by advertising and posting invitationlinks on major forums such as Bitcointalk, Steemit, and Reddit. Thegroup is ready to pump once it obtains enough members (typically above1,000). Telegram channels only allow subscribers to receive messagesfrom the channel admin, but not post discussions in the channel. In aTelegram group, members can by default post messages, but thisfunction is usually disabled by the group admin to avoid members’interference.

Pre-Pump announcement: The pump organizer, who is now the group orchannel admin, announces details of the next pump a few days ahead.The admins broadcast the exact time and date of the announcement of acoin which would then precipitate a pump of that coin. Otherinformation disclosed in advance includes the exchange where the pumpwill take place and the pairing coin2. The admins advise members totransfer sufficient funds (in the form of the pairing coin) into thenamed exchange beforehand. While the named pump time is approaching,the admin reminds group members by sending out countdowns, andemphasizes the pump “rules” that pump members should observe tomaximize the pump profit. Typical “rules of thumb” include 1) makesure to buy fast, 2) “shill”3 the pumped coin on the exchange chat boxand social media to attract outsiders, 3) “HODL”4 the coin at leastfor several minutes to give outsiders time to join in, 4) sell inpieces and not in a single chunk, 5) only sell at a profit and neversell below the current price. The admin also gives members a pep talk,quoting historical pump profits, to boost members’ confidence andencourage their participation.

Coin announcement: At the pre-arranged pump time, the admin announcesthe coin, typically in the format of an OCR (optical characterrecognition)-proof image to hinder machine reading (Fig. 1(a)).Immediately afterwards, the admin urges members to buy and hold thecoin in order to inflate the coin price. During the first minute ofthe pump, the coin price typically surges, increasing by several fold.Dump: A few minutes (sometimes tens of seconds) after the pump starts,the coin price will reach its peak. While the group admin might shout“buy buy buy” and “hold hold hold” in the channel, the coin pricestill can’t resist dropping. As soon as the first fall in priceappears, pump- and-dump participants start to panic-sell. While theprice might be re-boosted by the second wave of purchasers who buy thedips (as encouraged by channel admins), chances are the price willrapidly bounce back to the start price, sometimes even lower. The coinprice declining to the pre- pump proximity also signifies the end ofthe dump, since most investors would rather hold the coin than sell ata loss. A few minutes later, when the coin price and trading volumerecover to approximately the pre-pump level, the admin posts ananalysis that showcases how much the coin price increased by the pump.It is generally known to pump participants that admins benefit themost from a pump. Most of the time, the admin is able to sell theirpre- hoarded coins at an inflated price to other group members duringa pump. So why are there still people enthusiastic about partaking apump, given the risk of being ripped off by the admins? Because peoplebelieve that there are greater fools out there, who would buy thecoins at an even higher price than their original purchase price. Thegreater fool theory also forms the foundation of many other schemes,such as pyramid scams or ponzi games

The pump-and-dump was or- ganized by at least four Telegram channels,the largest one being Official McAfee Pump Signals, with a startling12,333 members. Prior to the coin announcement, the members werenotified that the pump-and-dump would take place on one of theCryptopia’s BTC markets (i.e., BTC is the pairing coin). Announcement:At 19:00 GMT, on Novermber 14, 2018, the channels announced the targetcoin in the form of a OCR-proof picture, but not quite simultaneously.Official McAfee Pump Signals was the fastest announcer, having theanouncement message sent out at 19:00:04. Bomba bitcoin “cryptopia”was the last channel that broadcast the coin, at 19:00:23. The targetcoin was BVB, a dormant coin that is not listed on CoinMarketCap. Thelaunch of the coin was announced on Bitcointalk on August 25, 2016.5The coin was claimed to be made by and for supporters of a popularGerman football club, Borussia Dortmund (a.k.a. BVB).

During the first 15 minutes of the pump, BVB’s trading volume explodedfrom virtually zero to 1.41 BTC (illus- trated by the tall grey bartowards the right end of the price/volume chart), and the coin priceincreased from 35 Sat7 to its threefold, 115 Sat (illustrated by thethin grey vertical line inside the tall grey bar).

Three and half minutes after the start of the pump-and-dump, the coinprice had dropped below its open price.

Pump-and-dump distribution by exchange: Among 220 pump-and-dumpactivities, 24 (11%) took place in Binance, 8 (4%) in Bittrex, 148(67%) in Cryptopia 40 (18%) in Yobit

Two extreme examples: the coin announcement of the pump on MST has 325views and the pump gain was 12.6%; another coin announcement of thepump on PARTY had only 18 views, and the pump gain was a whopping533.3%. This suggests the use of bots to read the coin announcementmessage (which does not require membership of the group) is involvedin trading.

Congo’s President Joseph Kabila is stepping down after this month’selection but he doesn’t rule out seeking the post again in the future.

In a rare interview with The Associated Press, Kabila said he hopes tocontinue to be active in tackling the vast challenges in thismineral-rich but “complicated nation.” He said he has done “the bestthat we definitely could” for Congo’s benefit since taking office in2001 after the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila. But hesaid there is more to be done.

“Well, I am not going to rule out anything in life,” Joseph Kabila,relaxed and smiling, said. “As long as you are alive and you haveideas as strong as you have, a vision, you should never rule outanything.”

That kind of talk has worried Congo’s opposition, which fears thatKabila will rule from the shadows if his preferred successor, rulingparty candidate and former interior minister Emmanuel RamazaniShadary, wins on Dec. 23.

The 47-year-old Kabila dismissed those concerns, saying theconstitution makes it clear that such an arrangement is not possible.Yet he now acts as moral authority for a recently created politicalcoalition, the Common Front for Congo, keeping himself close to power.

Kabila is eligible to run again for president in 2023, as Congo’sconstitution merely rules out three successive mandates. For now, hesaid he will likely remain in the role of adviser: “If anyone wantsadvice from me, I hope they come and ask.”

Kabila called the sanctions against Shadary “unjust and illegal.” EUofficials have confirmed the sanctions will be prolonged this week.

Shadary or whoever is elected “will be the president of this countryand not the president of Europe. God forbid,” Kabila said, laughing.Engagement with Europe will continue regardless, “so that one day theycome to see the light because they are in darkness, completely indarkness. Or should I say they’re in a state of denial.”

Kabila sounded pensive about the future, whatever his role. “The workin this country will never be over,” he said. “The Congo is a countryof a thousand challenges.”

The ruling will strengthen Lungu’s hand at a time when Zambia,Africa’s second largest copper producer, is grappling with mountingdebt and an economic slump caused by depressed commodity prices.[nL8N1VG03N]Lungu’s first period in office lasted only one year and six months,when he took over after the death of the previous elected presidentMichael Sata. He then won election in a disputed vote to a second,full term in August 2016.Lungu’s supporters argued that the constitution says a president isonly deemed to have served a term if he is in office for at leastthree years of the full five-year term.Constitutional Court President Hildah Chibomba said the ruling by theseven judges of the court had been unanimous.“Our answer is that the (Lungu’s first) presidential tenure ofoffice...cannot be considered as a full term,” Chibomba said.

The bill, which was introduced to lawmakers in November, will enablethe Registrar of Political Parties to halt government grants toparties for up to six months and the authority to deregister them andsupervise their internal affairs.

The proposed legislation “is a threat to multi-party politics inTanzania and once it is passed by the national assembly will result inone-party rule,” Zitto Kabwe, who heads the Alliance for Change andTransparency Wazalendo, and is an outspoken critic of President JohnMagufuli, said on his Twitter account Thursday.

.@CBA_Group_ & @nicbankkenya a potential combined market share of10.9% by total deposits, new entity upon merger would be secondlargest by market share second only to @KCBGroup that commandsapproximately 14.7% market share

The Gilets Jaunes just came, with no organization, no leaders to tellthem where to go or to harangue the crowd. They were just there, inthe yellow vests, angry and ready to explain their anger to anysympathetic listener. @21WIRE Every automobile in France is supposedto be equipped with a yellow vest.I wrote in 12 JAN 15 :: The arrival of the asymmetric threat on thestreets of Paris was deeply unsettling and will surely keep Europeoff-balance and presages a ‘new normal’.Mueller is coming. And he is clearly coming for @realDonaldTrump Notsimply for obstructing justice but for conspiring with a hostileforeign power to win an election This is a scandal unlike any Americahas ever seen @thedailybeastDemocrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russiaafter James Comey’s testimony. No Smocking Gun...No Collusion.”tweeted Trump.There is a lot of discussion about the FED's rate path. "Because he’s promised a rate hike, [Fed Chair Jerome Powell] risksstirring a wave of fear if he doesn’t tighten. Investors will startpresuming that something must be wrong, very wrong, that things areworse than they thought." [Jesse Felder]Sterling slumped to as low as $1.2655 [a June low] as Investorsfretted about Theresa May's next moves.BREAKING: Theresa May cancels a vote in the U.K. Parliament on herBrexit deal to avoid a huge defeat, a source saysRBI [India Reserve Bank] Governor Urjit Patel [who is from Kenya] hasstepped down.Congo's Kabila doesn't rule out seeking presidency in future in aninterview with @AP's @carleypeteschThe Kenya Shilling has appreciated by 0.6% year to date @CytonnInvestunderpinned by inward remittances [Cumulatively, total diasporaremittances rose by 39.5% in the 12 months to October 2018 to USD 2.6bn]The Nairobi All Share fell 1.53 points to close at 142.52The Nairobi NSE20 fell 46.81 points to close at 2772.19.Equity turnover clocked 398.074m.

N.S.E Equities - Agricultural

Sasini Tea and Coffee rallied +3.906% to close at 19.95 and traded180,800 shares.

N.S.E Equities - Commercial & Services

Safaricom dipped -1.52% to close at 22.65 and traded 13.202m shares.Safaricom is a Value Proposition at these levels.

N.S.E Equities - Finance & Investment

NIC Bank which ramped +32.45% higher on Friday on the news that it wasin Merger Talks with CBA Bank corrected -8.33% to close at 27.50 andtraded 339,700 shares.KCB Group eased -0.25% to close at 39.85 and traded 1.014m shares worth 40.452m.Equity Group closed -0.51% at 39.20 and traded 362,900 shares.

Kenya Re was marked down -4.34% to close at 14.30 and traded 1.057m shares.

N.S.E Equities - Industrial & Allied

KenGen firmed +0.28% to close at 7.00 ahead of its AGM tomorrow inKasarani. The Shareholders will be a happy Lot in part because KenGenended a dividend drought this year.